Redefining BrutalismAuthor(s): Barbara A.

Campagna
Source: APT Bulletin: The Journal of Preservation Technology , Vol. 51, No. 1, Special
Issue: The Next Fifty Symposium (2020), pp. 25-36
Published by: Association for Preservation Technology International (APT)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26920641

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 Redefining Brutalism Barbara A. Campagna

Can we change the Why is the preservation of postwar architecture

negative narrative that falls under the brutalist lexicon so challenging?
surrounding brutalism I asked this question and discussed its impacts on
and urban renewal the preservation of brutalist buildings at a National
through an activist
Center for Preservation Technology and Training
approach to
(NCPTT) symposium in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2015:
architecture and
“Questions of authenticity, the use of materials such as concrete panels and
historic preservation?
concrete block, the construction of new building types like public housing,
the often-misunderstood social policies of urban renewal, and maintaining
some of the most energy inefficient buildings ever built are some of the
issues that impact its preservation.”1 This paper looks at brutalist buildings
and their preservation in Buffalo, Toronto, and Boston, which together
Fig. 1. Shoreline Apartments, amply demonstrate the complexity of saving and reusing these buildings in
Buffalo, New York, original site meaningful ways. This paper is based on the theme plenary entitled “Can
plan for Shoreline and Waterfront
We Redefine Brutalism, Post-War Architecture & Urban Renewal?” that
School, 1969. © The Estate of
Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph was one of the three opening sessions at the APT Buffalo-Niagara 2018
Heritage Foundation. Conference (Fig. 1).
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APT BULLETIN: THE JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 51:1 2020

Postwar Architecture began turning away from [the Inter- Preserving these buildings “requires
Worldwide, more buildings have been national Style, often referred to as] confronting the label under which they
built since World War II than in all High Modernism, in favor of what have been widely misunderstood and
previous centuries combined. The the Swiss critic Sigfried Giedion and disparaged,” as described in Heroic:
1950s through the 1970s were decades the American architect Louis Kahn Concrete Architecture and the New
immersed in the second wave of mod- referred to as a New Monumentality: Boston: “‘Brutalism,’ was a loosely
ernism, when architects explored the a muscular architecture that “conveys and often arbitrarily applied moniker
aesthetics and advances in planning, the feeling of its eternity,” as Kahn emerging from European discourses
put in his 1944 essay “Monumental- whose concerns differed significantly
building design, and technology with
ity.” Near the end of that decade, the from those of architects internationally.
optimism and hope. Radical social and
French-Swiss Modernist Le Corbusier Divorced from its initial social and aes-
cultural changes stimulated social and
began building monolithic struc- thetic connotations, the word has today
architectural growth and change with
tures in raw concrete—béton brut, come to imply that the buildings cate-
even more optimism.2 New and some-
in French, one of the sources for the gorized under this label originated from
times conflicting movements took root,
word “Brutalism.”6 deeply negative—brutal—intentions. In
including urban renewal, concern for
retrospect, one of the worst aspects of
the environment, and historic preserva- According to Le Corbusier, “Béton brut Brutalism has been the misapplication
tion. Plans by this second generation was born at the Unite d’Habitation of its name.”12
of modernists, who saw architecture as at Marseilles where there were eighty
a social responsibility and an essential contractors and such a massacre of con- Urban Renewal
item of the modern era, brought demo- crete that one simply could not dream Urban renewal was a significant as-
cratic urbanism to architectural design. of making useful transitions by means pect of the growth and changes across
The use of concrete and steel allowed of grouting. I decided: let us leave that the world following World War II. It
the biggest buildings and complexes all brute. I called it ‘béton brut.’”7 was a land-redevelopment program
ever envisioned to be built. Concrete to address urban decay by removing
proved to be the easiest solution to the Hans Asplund, the Swedish architect,
“coined the term nybrutalism in 1949, “blighted areas in inner cities to clear
structural, constructional, and eco- out slums and create opportunities for
nomic requirements of these complexes; which the British journalist Reyner
Banham first popularized in a 1955 es- higher class housing, businesses, and
it was flexible yet solid, malleable yet more.”13 While the concept of urban
permanent.3 say entitled ‘The New Brutalism.’”8 As
a case study, Banham “used the blocky renewal began primarily as a social re-
According to a report from the U.S. brick-and-steel Hunstanton School, form in rapidly industrialized cities of
Energy Information Administration in built in 1954 in the county of Nor- nineteenth-century England as a way
2003, “the most energy efficient com- folk, England, by the architects Peter to resolve the unsanitary conditions of
mercial buildings in the [United States] the poor, the goal of twentieth-century
and Alison Smithson,” which is often
were built before 1920 and after 1990, urban renewal was to improve housing
overlooked in the history of brutalism
which would lead us to surmise that the conditions and density, thus improving
because it was not concrete.9 Michael
most inefficient buildings in the country residents’ lives both morally and eco-
Snyder wrote, “Where Modernism was
were built in the years in between.” nomically.
poised and polite, often incorporating
That study indicated “that 85 [percent] white plaster walls and walls that con- The U.S. Housing Act of 1949, also
of our commercial building portfolio in cealed the building’s internal logic, Bru- known as the Taft-Ellender-Wagner
the United States was built after 1945,” talism evolved into something bold and Act, authorized “federal loans to cities
suggesting that “buildings from the confrontational, its heavy, rugged forms to acquire and clear dense slum areas”
modern era are the biggest problem we forged of new industrial materials that housing the urban poor.14 Thomas Su-
have from energy consumption and cli- disguised nothing at all.”10 grue summarizes the process as these
mate change” standpoints.4 areas that “would be sold to private
While modernism was sleek, often cov- developers to redevelop in accordance
Defining Brutalism ering its structure in plaster, and seemed with a plan prepared by the city (nor-
No other architectural style elicits as to look to the future, brutalism—a term mally with new housing), and grants to
much negative emotional reaction as that existed only in architecture until cover two-thirds of the portion of the
brutalism.5 As New York Times critic recently—used its new, exposed materi- city’s costs in excess of the sale prices
Michael Snyder has pointed out, als to define a more pragmatic hope for received from the developers, as well
the world after the World Wars. While as provide millions of dollars to create
 he term “brutalism” has never been
T the debate around terminology and a public housing throughout the coun-
well liked among architects, nor well clear definition of brutalism remained try.”15 While it was first called “urban
defined among the critics who invent- ambiguous, the spread of brutalist ar- redevelopment” in the U.S., it became
ed it. Beginning in the 1940s, design- chitecture after World War II was unde- popularized around the world as “ur-
ers in Europe and the United States niable.11 ban renewal” by the late 1950s.
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 REDEFINING BRUTALISM

How did urban renewal impact the city Buffalo’s Brutalism: fit into a tractor trailer, so they could be
and architectural design? There were The Shoreline Apartments constructed off-site, trucked in, and as-
four major design commitments under- sembled on-site (Fig. 2).22 Writer Nick
The City of Buffalo’s urban-renewal
lying federally funded urban-renewal Miller concisely described Rudolph’s
department cleared the waterfront and
programs, some more successfully design: “Featuring shed roofs, ribbed or
its existing “slum” housing during the
implemented than others: “Reestablish- corduroy concrete exteriors, projecting
1960s so that the area could be rebuilt
ing urban monumentality, unwaveringly balconies and enclosed garden courts,
to house many of the people displaced
promoting Modernism, acknowledging the project combined Rudolph’s spatial
by the previous demolition of the
the importance of the automobile in the radicalism with experiments in human-
neighborhood. With assistance from a
next generation city, and applying the scaled, low-rise, high-density housing
state agency, the Urban Development
latest technological tools to make hous- developments. And the project’s serpen-
Corporation (UDC), development pro-
ing affordable, particularly through tine site plan was meant to create active
ceeded on the cleared waterfront site
prefabrication.”16 This short, 20-year communal green spaces, but the spaces
by the late 1960s. The new waterfront
period between 1950 and 1970 led to went unused and the high crime rate
complex, designed by Paul Rudolph in
the development of innovative concrete over the years has often been attributed
1969, became known as Shoreline. It
buildings using experimental forms and to the design rather than the poor man-
was one of the largest UDC develop-
materials that were untested. The result agement.”23
ments outside of New York City.
was that whole neighborhoods through-
out the U.S. and Canada were demol-
ished and replaced with new buildings
and complexes typically using concrete
in the brutalist style.
By the mid-1970s, “criticism of both
concrete modernism and urban renewal
had become widespread,” leading to a
mostly negative narrative surrounding
this era.17 As stated in Heroic, “Jane
Jacobs, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott
Brown and others decried the hubris
and lack of community engagement
of the era’s architects, their failure to
communicate to the public, and the per-
ceived disconnection of their buildings
from the historical symbolism of archi-
tectural form.”18 In addition, the rising
costs of concrete and structural changes
in the construction industry turned the
market towards steel.19 By 1980, with
the dawn of postmodernism, “there had
been a shift in both cultural and profes-
sional investment in concrete as the ap- Fig. 2. Shoreline Apartments,
The Shoreline complex “was originally looking east toward City Hall and
propriate medium for expressing civic
part of a large, ambitious urban renew- downtown, 1972. Photograph
aspirations.”20
al waterfront development of market- by Donald Luckenbill, of Paul
As the 2018 APT conference program rate and low-income housing, includ- Rudolph’s office. © The Estate of
was being developed, many brutalist- Paul Rudolph, The Paul Rudolph
ing a marina, which was never built.”
Heritage Foundation.
era buildings throughout the country What was constructed “represented
were either facing imminent demoli- a scaled-down version of the original
tion or being appreciated in new ways. plan.”21 Only two phases of the low-
The conference committee wanted to income housing designed by Rudolph Rudolph’s first scheme was considered
explore why some buildings were in were built. a significant urban-renewal design in
danger, while others were being remade the brutalist style. It was also included
The complex was constructed with
and even applauded. Did their location in the 1970 exhibition at the Museum
“twentieth-century brick”—his label
matter? Did the local architects who of Modern Art (MoMA) entitled Work
for his innovative modular building
admired the buildings have the ability in Progress and in a 1972 edition of
units. The components were designed to
to change the narrative? Architectural Record. “With few excep-

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APT BULLETIN: THE JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 51:1 2020

There was leaking from the roofs and

deteriorated concrete, which is not
unusual for 50-year-old concrete build-
ings. The buildings continued to suf-
fer from lack of proper maintenance
(such as typical elevator and electrical
repairs), installation of aesthetically
inappropriate windows with poor en-
ergy efficiency, lack of repairs following
typical glass damage, and removal of
graffiti.
At the invitation of the Buffalo Preser-
vation Board, I prepared a local land-
mark nomination with the intent of
stopping or at least halting the demoli-
tion.30 Rudolph’s complex, a master-
planned residential community that
reads as a unified district, is significant
as one of UDC’s largest public-housing
projects and marks a significant step
Fig. 3. Shoreline Apartments
demolition, looking east across suburban-like townhouses.”26 Five of in the construction of public housing
City Hall and downtown, 2015. the Rudolph-designed buildings were built to high design standards at low
© David Torke. demolished in 2015, and in 2020, after cost. It is the design of a leading mod-
six years of preservation and legal battles, ernist architect and a rare example of
17 more of the original 34 buildings the melding of garden-city and federal
tions, Paul Rudolph’s buildings can be were demolished. Future phases were greenbelt planning principles with the
recognized by their complexity, their expected to be similar. The city’s plan- diagonal geometries and animated tex-
sculptural details, their effects of scale ning board approved the New York tured surfaces of the brutalist architec-
and their texture,” wrote Arthur Drex- State Environmental Quality Review tural style, of which Paul Rudolph was
ler, the longtime director of MoMA’s (SEQR) plan, as did the New York a leading proponent. The full complex
Department of Architecture and Design. State Historic Preservation Office.27 and site were determined eligible for the
He noted that, despite the project’s The five buildings at Carolina and National Register of Historic Places in
massive scale, it was “designed to sug- Niagara Streets were the first to be 2009 by the New York State Office of
gest human use, affording both inhab- demolished (Fig. 3).28 Parks, Recreation and Historic Preser-
itants and passersby a kaleidoscopic vation.
variety.”24 There were no real architectural or
structural reasons to demolish the In Buffalo, proposed local landmarks
Buffalo has a rich architectural and buildings. The owner did not like them must meet one of nine criteria; Shore-
modernist heritage, including brutalist- and thus purposely did not maintain line met six.31 Nevertheless, the owner
era buildings designed by master archi- them, using the self-fulfilling prophecy managed to defeat the proposed local
tects, such as I. M. Pei, Paul Rudolph, of demolition by neglect. The plan was landmarking of the site. Buffalo does
and Edward Durell Stone. While Buf- to ultimately demolish the Rudolph- not have a nonprofit organization dedi-
falo’s citizens and government agencies designed buildings adjacent to Niagara cated to the preservation of modern
have longed admired its traditional Street and to replace the buildings with architecture, so preservationists worked
architecture, brutalist architecture re- Victorian-looking three-story-high vinyl with Docomomo US to try to stop the
mains its least appreciated style. The and cement-board rowhouses. There demolition. The “Mid Century Modern
Buffalo News published an article in has been a lot of discussion by local Buffalo” Facebook group shared con-
2015, entitled “Unloved, Maybe, but preservationists about reconstructing cerns with over 450 members, who gal-
Standing Tall.”25 the nineteenth-century streetscape. Cit- vanized to create a petition. Although
ies evolve and should continue to tell the advocacy efforts led to a public
Rudolph’s Shoreline Apartments have forum on modernism (co-sponsored
been the most reviled of all these build- the story of that evolution, which does
not mean erasing complex eras. If we with Preservation Buffalo Niagara, the
ings in Buffalo. In 2015 it faced the Preservation League of New York State,
“first of several projected phases of removed every building in America that
was the result of urban renewal, our and Docomomo US) and to the request
‘upgrades,’ which called for demoli- for the submission of the local land-
tion of currently unoccupied Rudolph- cities would reference only traditional
nostalgia.29 mark designation, the efforts to save
designed units and replacement with the complex (or at least have a healthy
28
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 REDEFINING BRUTALISM

dialogue with the owners and city of-

ficials) ultimately failed. It is rather
ironic that the majority of the people
who signed the online petition did not
live in Buffalo. Although few local citi-
zens and no politicians stepped forward
to support the handful of people trying
to save Shoreline, it did raise both local
and international interest in the com-
plex and the regulatory review process.
Citylab printed several articles about
Shoreline’s history, its demolition, and
the removal of the residents, generating
international interest.32 A local gallery
mounted an exhibit and sponsored a
symposium and a publication about
Shoreline’s story, which received fund-
ing from the New York State Council
on the Arts and the Graham Founda-
tion.33

Toronto’s Concrete
Modernism
Fig. 4. New Toronto City Hall
While Buffalo was losing one of its
“Can we create a new appreciation of (concrete with interior glass
brutalist icons, a hundred miles north facades, at left), built 1965, and the
modern buildings by examining the
in Toronto, a team of architects and old Richardsonian Romanesque
evolution of taste within the field of ar-
planners had been working for a decade city hall, built 1899, photograph
chitecture and public opinion?”37 They
to raise interest in their brutalist and 2010. Courtesy of Magnus Maske,
chose to look through the philosophi- Wikimedia Commons.
late modern heritage and to develop
cal eyes of Pierre Bourdieu and Juan
comprehensive planning to reuse the
Pablo Bonta. But taste is broader than
buildings.34 As early as 1987, an exhibit information on infrastructure and the
the appreciation of brutalism. Concrete
and guidebook on Toronto’s modern modern suburbs, and provide details
Toronto asks “Why are some build-
architecture was published and then re- on concrete and its technology. Con-
ings appreciated and others are not?”
published for the 2002 APT conference. crete building skins in Canada took a
“Why do people like some buildings
Soon after, in 2007, Concrete Toronto: different and, in many respects, more
and dislike others?”38 In Distinction:
A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture experimental route due to the relative
A Social Critique of the Judgement of
from the Fifties to the Seventies was economy of concrete over steel in Can-
Taste, Bourdieu comments that “Taste
published. It was both a guidebook and ada as compared to the U.S. The U.S.
is first and foremost distaste, disgust
an oral history documenting buildings steel industry was not as influential in
and visceral intolerance of the taste of
that had been ignored or disparaged by Canada. Two of the most well-known
others.”39 Bonta, in Architecture and
both critics and the public. According buildings of this era described in Con-
Its Interpretation, describes the “phases
to the authors, the buildings were erect- crete Toronto were also some of the
of architectural evaluation from a pe-
ed during “an important period that most innovative in their use of concrete
riod of blindness to a period of iconic
was a time of immense prosperity, when and cantilevered structure.
recognition.”40 The authors sought to
considerable public and private invest-
show how it is possible for architects to New City Hall by Finnish architect
ment had a major influence in shaping
engage in the activities of cultural and Viljo Revell was completed in 1965,
Canadian cities.”35 The authors believed
social invention—a discussion that is the result of one of the world’s largest
that Canadians were suffering “from
larger than just the issues surrounding international architecture competitions,
a cultural amnesia about this period,
concrete architecture and brutalism. with over 500 entries. It became the
remaining critical yet uninformed about
its architecture without thoughtful as- Concrete Toronto and the related city’s symbol, and it is now one of the
sessment.”36 Concrete Toronto Map, published by most beloved buildings in Toronto.41
Blue Crow Media, were developed to Located next to the Old City Hall, it
These efforts were more than academic: provided Toronto with a center, ex-
highlight 52 of Toronto’s mostly iconic
They were a way to review architec- pressing the civic ideal and the demo-
brutalist buildings, share oral-history
ture and heritage conservation through cratic spirit that lies at the heart of the
interviews of some of the leading archi-
an advocacy lens. The authors asked, modern city. Its organic curvilinear
tects of the buildings, provide detailed
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APT BULLETIN: THE JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 51:1 2020

properties have a kinder, gentler, and Apartment-Tower Legacy The majority of the tower blocks are
more plastic architecture than the first The first half of Concrete Toronto re- not social housing like Shoreline in Buf-
wave of modern buildings (Fig. 4).42 views Toronto’s iconic concrete build- falo but were privately developed under
ings, while the second half evaluates its federal incentive programs, providing
The Colonnade, by Gerald Robinson
suburban modernist apartment-tower a flood of moderately priced rental ac-
and Tampold Wells Architects, was
legacy—one of the city’s most valuable commodation throughout the 1960s
completed in 1964 on Bloor Street,
housing assets because of their incred- and 1970s. With such a massive apart-
the center of the shopping district in
ible number—in more than two thou- ment stock, it is impossible to imagine
the stylish neighborhood of Yorkville,
sand buildings.45 Those in the “inner demolition. Canadian architects and
Toronto. A concrete mid-rise, it was
suburbs were constructed at the height policy makers realized that as well.
the first modern mixed-use building in Through the use of several tools includ-
the city. It has a “lattice skin, formed of 1960s, 70s and 80s modernism”;
and they illustrate “the legacy of ideas, ing federal funding, regional and fed-
by a repetitive precast-concrete-skin eral policies, and the collaboration of
structure,” and a freestanding concrete architecture, and trades imported from
Europe during the wave of post-war architects, planners, and social-service
courtyard that contains what is said to agencies, one of the most significant
be the “largest unsupported staircase of immigration.”46 This housing was most-
ly privately developed, though support- approaches to reusing postwar build-
its kind when built.”43 The tower rests ing stock to be developed is called the
on a five-story office and retail podium ed by government policy and incentives,
and was intended to house middle- and Tower Renewal Partnership (TRP).
that resembles Unite d’Habitation in
Marseilles (Fig. 5).44 working-class populations. Despite be- The TRP is a collaboration of govern-
ing designed as higher density districts ment agencies, nonprofit organizations,
with housing that accounts for the ma- and design professionals that “demon-
jority of rental housing in the Toronto strates the role architects can play in
region, many apartment-tower neigh- developing policy changes to effectively
borhoods are surrounded by underuti- rehabilitate our everyday modernist
lized space and uncoordinated commu- environment.”48 The program was initi-
nity infrastructure and amenities, with ated by ERA Architects in 2007 with
buildings that need more strategies for the launch of a series of ongoing initia-
maintenance and rehabilitation. Today, tives and collaborations. The architects
this housing infrastructure is aging. leading this initiative are the same team
Providing homes to millions, often those who developed Concrete Toronto. Us-
of lower income, owners are faced with ing their understanding of Toronto’s
problems “such as deteriorating quality concrete legacy, they were key to the
and poor energy performance, a lack creation of this policy and design
of social and urban infrastructure and approach.
a disconnected relationship to today’s
planning process.”47

Fig. 5. The Colonnade, Yorkville,

Toronto, built 1964, photograph
2018, showing detail of the
cantilevered concrete staircase
and facade with precast-concrete
skin. Photograph by author.

Fig. 6. Ken Soble Tower

transformation concepts,
showing design goals of the
transformation: building-envelope
approach, community space
and partnerships consideration,
and energy and retention of
greenhouse-gas emissions.
Concepts by ERA Architects.

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 REDEFINING BRUTALISM

ERA Architects worked with the team designers in Toronto led the populariza- globe, Heroic presented their cultural
to develop the goals and objectives of tion of brutalism with their Concrete and social significance and the reasons
the TRP. The goals of the program are Toronto in 2007 and influenced a small why their preservation is significant to
“to rehabilitate the aging rental-hous- team of architects and designers in Bos- acknowledging this American story.54
ing supply to meet modern standards ton who published Heroic: Concrete The team realized that they needed to
of comfort, health, and energy perfor- Architecture and the New Boston in change not only the long-held negative
mance, while maintaining affordability; 2015. After World War II, both cities re- narrative of Boston’s concrete architec-
to expand opportunities for community- invented themselves with urban renewal ture but also the word that had come to
led economic diversification, social and concrete. Today, they are once again mean the ugliest style of architecture—
infrastructure, and cultural production reinventing themselves by embracing an “brutalism” (Fig. 7).
to enable postwar tower neighborhoods architecture that has been denigrated for
to become healthier and more complete two decades. What Concrete Toronto
communities; and to leverage the legacy did for Toronto, Heroic is doing for
of postwar tower urbanism toward re- Boston.
gional growth, sustainability, and transit
As in Toronto, the Boston efforts were
connectivity, building more resilient and
more than academic: They were an activ-
thriving urban regions.”49
ist approach to architecture and historic
One of the first projects is the retrofit preservation. Heroic “surveys the inten-
of the Ken Soble Tower in Hamilton, tions and aspirations of this period and
Ontario, using the “Repair and Re- freshly considers its legacies—both trou-
newal” stream of public funding from bled and inspired.”52 The authors evalu-
Canada’s new national housing strategy ated concrete buildings and their relation-
for affordable housing. ERA Architects ships to brutalism and urban renewal. As
designed the rehabilitation of the 1967 in Toronto, they realized that by address-
Ken Soble Tower, using all of the goals ing advocacy challenges, they could influ- Fig. 7. Cover of Mark Pasnik,
of the TRP. The building is owned by ence their own professional conservation Michael Kubo, and Chris Grimley,
Heroic: Concrete Architecture and
CityHousing Hamilton, and as its old- work and that of other colleagues, in
the New Boston (New York: The
est high-rise multi-residential building, particular with Boston City Hall. Monacelli Press, 2015).
it had been suffering from deterioration
Quite taken with the concrete monu-
for years (Fig. 6).
ments they found throughout their city
So why change the word “brutalism”
After considering several design op- and concerned by the negativity towards
to “heroic?” What the team behind
tions including sale, rebuild, capital so many of them, including the city hall,
Concrete Toronto discovered was that
repair, and rehabilitation, CityHousing the Boston team, led by the design firm
the more they discussed these buildings
Hamilton with ERA Architects chose to OverUnder, started working to change
in a positive manner, the less brutalist
retrofit the building to a passive-house the narrative as early as 2007 when the
buildings were associated with a brutal
standard. Its 18 stories and 80,000 mayor of Boston announced his intent
connotation. They found that words did
square feet will provide 146 modernized to demolish Boston City Hall. Using
matter. Could the Boston team save their
units for affordable senior housing, with Concrete Toronto as a model, they be-
buildings by changing the name of the
reactivated community spaces, plans for gan surveying the city’s concrete archi-
style? The term “‘heroic’ refers at once
aging-in-place and barrier-free living, tecture and working with professional
to the formal attributes of the buildings
and resilient design features, both in the colleagues and academics to reframe the
themselves—powerful, singular, aspiring
apartments and the landscape.50 What understanding of concrete buildings,
to the iconic—and to the attitudes of
should be noted about this building and resulting first in a 2009 exhibit, Heroic,
the architects and institutions that cre-
the other towers outside of Toronto is which expanded to become the book.
ated them.”55
that their significance is not architectur- Public investment set Boston apart from
al, such as the icons described in Con- major cities in the U.S., attracting a gen- Some of the luminaries in modern ar-
crete Toronto but their sheer number eration of architects working in a shared chitecture are represented in Boston’s
and their social importance, allowing for vocabulary of concrete modernism and heroic architecture. One very effective
some flexibility in retrofit design. its structural and sculptural qualities. comparative approach was the perspec-
The authors recognized that the city’s tive sketches of the key buildings ap-
Heroism and Hubris in Boston concrete legacy symbolized “a progres- pearing at the front of the book: Boston
As Toronto’s concrete architecture is to sive civic vision through monumentality City Hall (Kallmann McKinnell &
Canada, Boston’s concrete architecture and robust architectural expression.”53 Knowles); the Government Service Cen-
is to the U.S. Both cities have a legacy At a time when such buildings are wide- ter (Paul Rudolph); the Christian Science
of urban renewal and concrete architec- ly dismissed and in danger of radical Center (I. M. Pei & Partners and Araldo
ture.51 A small team of architects and transformation or demolition across the Cossutta); the Boston University School
31
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APT BULLETIN: THE JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 51:1 2020

Fig. 8. Axonometric drawings of ness. Contemporary critics were ef- people regard brutalist architecture.
concrete buildings in Boston from fusive. Architecture critic Ada Louise We are beginning to see the reevalu-
Heroic: Concrete Architecture and Huxtable, writing in the New York ation that comes with the distance of
the New Boston. Drawing by James
Times in 1969, declared that Boston time. As stated in Concrete Toronto,
Jarzyniecki.
“has one of the handsomest buildings “We examine the evolution of taste
around, and thus far, one of the least within public opinion and the fields
understood.”58 of preservation and architecture, and
of Law (Josep Lluís Sert); and the we ask ourselves why is it that we like
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts Like many public buildings of this era,
some buildings and dislike others? And
(Le Corbusier) (Fig. 8). however, it was never properly main-
are our likes and dislikes more valid
tained; the plaza was underutilized. It
Boston City Hall than those of others? Values, like tastes
was picked as one of the world’s ugliest
in fashion, will change.”60 Alison and
The design of Boston City Hall was the buildings in 2015.59 Ironically, this was
Peter Smithson have been quoted as
result of a national competition, which the same year Heroic was published
saying that “Up until now, Brutalism
was won by Kallmann McKinnell & and the year that the work of local de-
has been discussed stylistically, whereas
Knowles. The competition jury report signers celebrating their city’s concrete
its essence is ethical.”61 This was an
of 1962 noted that the design “achieves heritage began to be noticed.
era of great social hope. Today, we
great monumentality, drama and unity A new master plan for Boston City Hall see what was once called a “concrete
. . . the play of light and shade, the was unveiled in 2015. In 2017 “Keep- monstrosity” (Toronto’s New City
richness of forms and spaces.”56 The ing It Modern” funds from The Getty Hall) adjacent to what was once called
architects “envisioned a monumental Foundation were awarded for a conser- a “Victorian monstrosity” (Toronto’s
concrete and brick building celebrating vation management plan to be prepared Old City Hall). In 10 years, Boston
openness and civic light, using a tripar- by Utile, OverUnder, and Building Con- City Hall has gone from the most hated
tite classical order for this program- servation Associates. The plan focuses building in the city to one of the most
matic distribution: public services in on deferred maintenance and design beloved.62
the brick mound at the base, a colum- flaws, such as the aging of the concrete,
nated middle zone of ceremonial spaces In Buffalo, the story has not been a
water penetration, aging systems, en-
meant to symbolize the functioning of happy one, but the loss and disrespect
ergy compensation, and freezing pipes.
government, and an attic of office spac- of Paul Rudolph’s Shoreline Apart-
A building that just 10 years earlier
es above for the municipal offices.”57 ments show us what Toronto and Bos-
appeared headed for demolition is now
ton have but that Buffalo does not—a
The building was surrounded with a being celebrated and remade (Fig. 9).
dedicated group of designers with
brick plaza intended to be enlivened enough community and government
with community programming and an Changing the Narrative
involvement to impact the political will.
interior courtyard to express its open- The last five years have witnessed a
The social story of Shoreline deserves
fundamental shift in the way that many
32
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 REDEFINING BRUTALISM

an article of its own. Many residents

loved their apartments until the owners
stopped performing basic maintenance.
Prior to demolition, residents were
served with eviction notices after they
had been told that they would all be
relocated. The last remaining resident
was carried out by marshals in 2018
and subsequently was party to the suit
filed to stop the demolition.63 Once that
suit was thrown out in its last appeal in
early 2020, the demolition was allowed
to continue.
Cities with a larger portfolio of brutal-
ist buildings also seem to respect them
more. With Toronto’s and Boston’s
huge legacies and Toronto’s two thou-
sand apartment towers, the dialogue is
much different than that in a city like
Buffalo with a much smaller collection.
Do we need to keep talking about
brutalism? If so, why? Brutalism and
urban renewal tell an important story
in America’s history, and brutalism is as
deserving of preservation as any other
era. Whether we call it “concrete,” Fig. 9. Boston City Hall plaza, built
“heroic,” or “monumental,” the more 1962–1969 by architects Kallmann
McKinnell & Knowles, photograph
people hear about it, the more they
2019. While often described as
start to look at it differently. When the concrete, Boston City Hall is
New York Times Style Magazine cel- actually brick (the plaza and
ebrated “Brutalism is Back” in 2016, base/podium), cast-in-place
we reached a tipping point. Some of the concrete, and precast concrete.
most popular Facebook and Instagram © Bob O’Connor.
architecture groups are dedicated to
Fig. 10. Brutalist Boston Map and
brutalism; The Brutalist Appreciation
Concrete Toronto Map (London:
Society, a private group on Facebook, Blue Crow Media, 2017 and 2018).
has over 100,000 members, and #brut-
group on Instagram has over 300,000
followers. SOS Brutalism, a German Conference, co-chaired the conference
crowdsourcing group, is developing an symposium, and was the rapporteur of
international brutalism database that the brutalism theme plenary. She is an
currently has 1,700 buildings. And Blue political will and encouraging civic ad- APT Fellow and a past APT president.
Crow Media in London is publishing vocacy is what will make the difference. She can be reached at bcampagna@
concrete and brutalist maps for cities One of the major outcomes of the Next bcampagna.com.
around the world. Fifty Symposium at the APT Buffalo- Notes
Nevertheless, we continue to suffer Niagara 2018 Conference was the 1. Barbara A. Campagna, Proceedings of the
great losses, such as the decimation of determination that APT and preserva- Mid-Century Modern Materials and Preservation
Paul Rudolph’s Orange County Gov- tion professionals need to become more Symposium (Natchitoches, La.: National Center
for Preservation Technology and Training, 2015),
ernment Center in Goshen, New York, involved in advocacy. These three case 223.
and the potential demolition of all studies demonstrate why (Fig. 10). 2. Peter Gossel and Gabriel Leuthauser, Archi-
or part of the Hurley Building at Ru- Barbara A. Campagna is a preserva-
tecture in the 20th Century, vol. 2 (London:
dolph’s Government Center in Boston. Taschen, 2005), 297.
tion architect and principal of Barbara 3. D. J. Huppatz, “Brutalism: How to Love a
As preservation architects, we know A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, Concrete Beast,” The Conversation, Sept. 3,
we have the technology and expertise PLLC, in Buffalo, New York. She 2019, accessed Sept. 4, 2019, https://theconver-
to restore the materials but harnessing chaired the APT Buffalo-Niagara 2018
sation.com/brutalism-how-to-love-a-concrete-
beast-122469.

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APT BULLETIN: THE JOURNAL OF PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGY / 51:1 2020

4. Campagna, Proceedings, 224. Also see “Table any impacts to a potentially eligible historic site. 41. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 22.
E2A: Major Fuel Consumption (Btu) Intensities by The mitigation plan included a HABS level 2 eval- 42. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 70.
End Use for All Buildings, 2003 (Revised 2008),” uation of the complex, which allowed the owner
U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed to demolish the first five buildings in the summer 43. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 40.
April 1, 2014, http://www.eia.gov/consumption/ of 2015; Christopher M. Hazel and Jonathan 44. The podium has recently undergone an insen-
commercial/data/archive/cbecs/cbecs2003/detailedt Gunderlach, of H.A.Z.Ex., “Buffalo Waterfront sitive rehabilitation, replacing the concrete with
ables_2003/2003set19/2003html/e02a.html. Complex, Shoreline Apartments,” Historic Ameri- glass curtain wall.
can Building Survey Documentation, Oct. 2009. 45. This section is summarized and condensed
5. Huppatz.
Campagna, “The Buffalo Waterfront Complex/ from the PowerPoint presentation and ERA Archi-
6. Michael Snyder, “Concrete Jungle,” New York Shoreline Apartments,” 1.
Times Style Magazine, Aug. 18, 2019, 190–197. tects’s website. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin
28. The 17 remaining buildings of phase 2 of Ru- Chong, 13.
7. Atlas of Brutalist Architecture (London: Phaid- dolph’s original design along Niagara Street were
on Press, 2018), 7. 46. Graeme Stewart, “Concrete Modernism” (ab-
demolished in early 2020 following several years
of legal suits to stop the demolition. stract, APT Next Fifty Symposium, Sept. 2018).
8. Snyder, 190–197.
29. Barbara Campagna, “Buffalo Brutalism,” ac- 47. Stewart.
9. Snyder, 190–197. Banham’s essay was expanded
into The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic? (New cessed May 18, 2020, http://barbaracampagna. 48. “Ken Soble Tower,” ERA Architects, accessed
York: Reinhold, 1966), 10. com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Campagna_Buf- April 27, 2020, www.eraarch.ca/project/ken-soble-
falo-Brutalism_04.01.15-FINAL.pdf. tower-transformation.
10. Snyder, 190–197.
30. Campagna, “The Buffalo Waterfront Com- 49. “What is Tower Renewal?,” Tower Renewal
11. Atlas of Brutalist Architecture, 7. plex/Shoreline Apartments,” 1. Partnership, accessed May 18, 2020, http://tower-
12. Mark Pasnik, Michael Kubo, and Chris Grimley, 31. As per the Buffalo Preservation Ordinance and renewal.com/opportunity/.
Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston as quoted by Buffalo City Planner Chris Hawley, 50. “Ken Soble Tower.”
(New York: The Monacelli Press, 2015), 16. email, Feb. 21, 2020. The six local landmarks 51. This case study draws heavily on the Power-
13. R. W. Caves, Encyclopedia of the City (Lon- criteria Shoreline met were: “(1) It has character, Point presentations prepared by Chris Grimley and
don: Routledge, 2004), 710. interest or value as part of the development,
Mark Pasnik, principals of OverUnder in Boston,
heritage or cultural characteristics of the City, state
14. “Urban Renewal,” Wikipedia, https:// for the brutalism theme plenary at the APT Buffalo-
or nation; (2) It exemplifies the historic, aesthetic,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_renewal. architectural, and cultural heritage of the City, Niagara 2018 Conference.
15. Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban state and nation; (5) It embodies distinguishing 52. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 15.
Crisis: Race and Inequality in Post-War Detroit characteristics of an architectural style (brutalism) 53. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 15.
(Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2014). This valuable for the study of a period, type, method
book has one of the best descriptions of the Hous- of construction; (6) It is the work of a master 54. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 15.
ing Act of 1949, postwar policies, and its impact architect whose individual work has influenced 55. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 19.
on cities. the development of the City, state or nation; (7) It 56. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 98.
16. Timothy M. Rohan, ed., Reassessing Rudolph embodies elements of design, detailing, materials
or craftsmanship that render it architecturally 57. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 98.
(New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 2018), 15.
significant; and (8) It embodies elements that 58. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 37.
17. Jane Jacobs published her seminal book The make it structurally or architecturally innovative”; 59. “World’s Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monu-
Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, see “§337-15 Criteria for Designation,” City of ments,” Virtual Tourist, accessed Nov. 15, 2016. Note
one of the first significant criticisms of “concrete Buffalo, New York, Code, accessed Feb. 21, 2020, that the Virtual Tourist website ceased operations on
modernism” and “urban renewal.” Robert Ven- https://ecode360.com/13624597. February 27, 2017.
turi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour 32. Mark Byrnes, “The Slow Death of a Brutalist
published Learning from Las Vegas in 1972 with a 60. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 13.
Vision for Buffalo,” Citylab, June 10, 2015, ac-
major revision in 1977, which called for architects cessed Feb. 25, 2020, https://www.citylab.com/eq- 61. Peter Chadwick, This Brutal World (London:
to be more receptive to the tastes and values of uity/2015/06/the-slow-death-of-a-brutalist-vision- Phaidon Press, 2016), 117.
“common” people and less immodest in their erec- for-buffalo/394574/. 62. Martin Finucane, “Is Boston City Hall One of the
tion of “heroic,” self-aggrandizing monuments. Most 10 Beautiful in the US?,” The Boston Globe,
33. El Museo, a gallery dedicated to the exhibi-
18. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 25. tion of work by underserved artists, mounted June 1, 2017.
19. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 26. an exhibit entitled Shoreline: Remembering a 63. Mark Byrnes, “The Last Man Standing in a
20. Pasnik, Kubo, and Grimley, 26. Waterfront Vision in October 2019; a symposium Doomed Buffalo Housing Complex,” Citylab, Jan.
entitled “Remembering Shoreline” on October 12, 2018, accessed Feb. 25, 2020, https://www.
21. Barbara A. Campagna, “Paul Rudolph’s Shore- 25–26, 2019; and is currently producing a book. citylab.com/equity/2018/01/the-last-man-standing-
line Apartments in Buffalo, NY, Face an Imminent The co-curators are Barbara Campagna and Bryan in-a-doomed-buffalo-housing-complex/550343/.
Threat,” Docomomo US Newsletter, Jan. 15, Lee, curator of El Museo.
2014, https://www.docomomo-us.org/news/paul-
34. This case study draws heavily on the Power-
rudolph-s-shoreline-apartments-in-buffalo-ny-face- Point presentations prepared by Michael Mc-
an-imminent-threat. Clelland and Graeme Stewart, principals of ERA
22. Barbara A. Campagna, “The Buffalo Water- Architects, in Toronto for the brutalism theme
front Complex/Shoreline Apartments,” Applica- plenary at the APT Buffalo-Niagara 2018 Con-
tion for Buffalo Landmark, Attachment 1: History ference. McClelland and Stewart are co-authors
& Significance (May 2014), 1. along with Steven Ho Yin Chong of Concrete
Toronto: A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture The APT Bulletin is published by the
23. Nick Miller, “Five Paul Rudolph Buildings under
Threat in Buffalo,” The Architect’s Newspaper, from the Fifties to the Seventies (Toronto: Coach Association for Preservation Technology.
Nov. 5, 2013, accessed April 1, 2014, https:// House Books, 2007), 13. APT’s mission is to advance appropriate
archpaper.com/2013/11/five-paul-rudolph- 35. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 12. traditional and new technologies to care
buildings-under-threat-in-buffalo/. 36. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 12. for, protect, and promote the longevity of
24. Miller. 37. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 12. the built environment and to cultivate the
25. Stephen T. Watson, “Unloved, Maybe, but 38. McClelland, Stewart, and Ho Yin Chong, 13.
exchange of knowledge throughout the
Standing Tall,” The Buffalo News, March 5, 2015. 39. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique
of the Judgment of Taste (London: Routledge, international community. A subscription
26. Campagna, Proceedings, 229.
1984), 41. to the Bulletin and free online access to
27. The project was required to be reviewed by the
State Historic Preservation Office under Section 40. Juan Pablo Bonta, Architecture and Its In- past articles are member benefits. For more
106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for terpretation (London: Lund Humphries, 1979), information, please visit www.apti.org.
65–90.
34
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 CONSERVATION OF CHARACTER-DEFINING ENGINEERED BUILDING SYSTEMS

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